The Holy Unconscious

"The unconscious is unfavorable or dangerous only because we are not one with it and therefore in opposition to it" - Carl Jung

We are propelled forward to accomplish things, to be admired, to love and be loved. Often we are subconsciously driven to atone for the mistakes of the past. Some missions we understand, some are a bit blurry and some are definitely below our radar screen. Who knows why we do what we do but at least by doing what we feel we have to do we can satisfy some of our drives, leave some baggage of our past behind and learn a lot about about previously unknown motives.

Society and our spiritual friends tell us we should build a legacy, go after our dreams, to stand up to our fears, discover our Self, and so forth. Advertising and the people we care for subtly, or not so subtly, induce us to get stuff and become a personality that they like us to be. It is always hard to tell what is our own nature and what has been superimposed on us by others, but it also doesn’t matter. First we develop an armor and put on a mask, and later life encourages us to remove it.

Psychology asks us to explore the subconscious, the biases, the ‘irrational’ emotions. Psychology is the scientific brother of spirituality and also deserves our respect. It is useful to dig up meaningful childhood memories and repressed traumas. It is beneficial to understand and resolve inner conflicts. It certainly pays to have a ‘healthy’ ego. Yet, it is only half of the journey Home. Our sister spirituality invites us to Awaken to the wisdom that slumbers inside of us.

We spiritual folks know that a ‘healthy’ ego is just the starting point to a magnificent inner journey that one day dissolves the ego altogether. The armor and masks our friends and foes helped us assemble get slowly removed until we one day stand naked before our loved ones, God, and the mirror. Part of the spiritual journey within is to separate Soul longing from spiritual super ego. Many of us start on a similar journey but eventually we wander in different directions.

Carl Jung invites us to take a new look at the subconscious. Our soul resides there, the collective unconscious, as well as God. We spiritual folks don’t have the Freudian ambition to understand the entire iceberg, we just want to Awaken to the parts we need for our spiritual pilgrimage, otherwise we drift happily along the journey our soul has signed up for. Never mind self-imposed interferences, never mind obstacles, everything is part of the self-discovery and our journey Home.